Pretty Cure: Era of the Fallen -Max Heart-
by HarmonianTraveller
Summary: "And you are still insisted on saying that there is still a shred of hope in this forsaken place? Look around you! Is there still a sign of life in this ruin which you called 'home? Is it still brimming with the overflowing light which once surrounds the place? Do you honestly think you can bring it all back? Give up, there's nothing you can do." "No, we won't, and we never will."


**This story is set in a post-apocalyptic state on Earth, where it is plagued by Darkness and rendered almost lifeless. And please note that this is an ****All Stars**** story, consisting of all the nine Pretty Cure teams(from Max Heart to HaCha) and other non-canon ones(which I'll not elaborate on). But, in this story, I am only writing about the ****Max Heart team**** and their side of the story…maybe some appearances of other Pretty Cures from time to time for something important, but that's all.****  
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**Disclaimer: I do not own the Pretty Cure series, just the idea for the story. And yes, I have used the names of some of the powers from Kuugen the Fox's 'Dissonance'. If the author wants me to take down the names of the powers, I will oblige to it.**

* * *

_*Crash!* *Bang!*_

The sound of glass shattering resonated throughout the desolated town, as a girl crashed into an abandoned and rundown building in the middle of a desolated city, destroying walls and furniture in the process. She groaned in pain and got up on her feet, brushing off debris and dirt from her arms. She was dressed in black and pink themed clothes with hearts, light pink ribbons and white frills and feathers decorating the protective clothing, with a blue and white pouch dangling from her pink belt, her short, sandy-blond hair and brown eyes clashing with her outfit.

Outside of the building, a large, ghostly creature stood, bluish-purple and shadowy, expression menacing in all of its twisted glory, size easily towering over the smaller buildings. The creature glowered at the girl and opened its mouth.

"Zakenna!" It roared loudly, sending shockwaves through surrounding buildings as they rumbled dangerously.

The black-cladded girl returned the creature's glare with an angry stare of her own. She bent her knees in a readied stance, and rushed forward—almost flying—in high speed, leaving a giant shockwave and a crater in the ground in her wake. Fist at the ready, the girl elicited a loud battle cry and launched herself at the creature, the first blow sending it flying backwards as she followed along.

"Haaaaaaaaa!"

A barrage of punches and kicks were exchange between the two, movements so fast that it's almost invisible to the naked eye, with both on neutral grounds, neither giving nor receiving blows. The creature then shot out multiple arms towards its opponent, sending strong and long-ranged blows as it swiped at the smaller figure in the air. But as big as it was, the girl was swifter and more agile than the giant humanoid creature, whose size had clearly slowed it down. The girl dodged and leaped out of the way, jumping onto the creature's arms as platforms to propel herself into the air again, throwing black energy spheres surrounded by white aura at the creature at a given chance. As she slowly launched herself nearer and nearer to the creature, she held out both arms and surrounded them with the same energy as before. She then punched both of her fists together and leaped towards the creature's face, holding out her hands in front of her and exclaimed,

"Pretty Cure, Blacklight Explosion!"

A larger energy sphere formed between the creature and the girl's hands, exploding loudly in a cloud of dust and smoke, sending the both of them flying backwards as the girl shielded herself with her arms, with the former crying out in pain.

"Zakenna…!"

The creature crashed into the ground violently as debrises were sent into the air, but the girl jumped onto the pole of a busted street lamp and landed on the ground safely. Without sparing another second, she held up her right hand and focused on the energy surge around her.

"Black Thunder!" She exclaimed.

A streak of black lightning struck onto her open palm. Her body glowed with a white aura and black sparks appeared all around her. She then opened her eyes and held out her hand once again. As the creature slowly got back up, she shouted loudly,

"Pretty Cure, Blacklight Marble Screw!"

A strong wave of black energy blasted out from the open palm extended in front of her and towards the helpless creature. Unable to escape in time, it was overwhelmed by the black surge of light energy, letting out a final wail of agony before disintegrating and exploded into a cluster of bluish-purple stars, mumbling a string of 'Gomene' as they all jumped away from the scene in fear and guilt.

With the battle over, the dust and smoke started to clear away, and the desolated town grew silent again, save for the faint sounds of panting and wheezing from the girl as she knelt on the ground. She turned back into her civilian form, attire consisting of a white high collared, buttoned jacket with black buttons and stripes running along the hem of the jacket and sleeves, the collar high enough to cover almost her whole mouth and two buttons on the jacket were left open. Underneath it was a white shirt with a red stripe running across the chest part and black long sleeves. She wore a pair of brown shorts and a pair of blue and black sneakers with yellow and orange socks folded slightly. Around her waist was a black belt with a blue and white pouch, adorned by a pink ribbon on the front. Lastly, a grey cloak was wrapped around her neck, adorned with a black heart. The cloak swayed in the wind, along with her hair.

"Nagisa! Are you okay-mepo?" A worried voice exclaimed from the pouch, which was swinging frantically.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine….sorta…" Nagisa replied, staggering upwards. Left hand grabbing her strained right arm, she tried to walk forwards. _'Ugh, good thing it was a weaker Zakenna this time…'_

"…Are you sure-mepo? You're hurt after all-mepo!"  
"I'm not injured, just strained my muscles. I'll be fine, stop worrying too mu-_wahh_!" She shrieked and fell to the ground after limping a few steps forward.

"You idiot-mepo! Don't push yourself too hard-mepo!" The voice spoke in a panicked tone.

"What did you just- I am _not_ pushing myself too hard, Mepple!" She retorted, annoyed by her companion's choice of words.

The creature inside the pouch rolled his eyes in annoyance. "You are _obviously_ pushing your body to the brink of exhaustion-mepo! Just stop and rest for a moment-mepo!"  
"No I'm not!"  
"Yes you are-mepo!"  
"Like I said-!"  
"N-Nagisa!?" Another voice spoke up suddenly.

"H-Huh?" Nagisa looked up in confusion. Standing not far away from her was a girl with long, dark blue hair and eyes, a worried expression on her face, which quickly turned serious. Her civilian attire consisted of a black, normal-collared, button up jacket with white buttons and stripes, in contrast to Nagisa's clothes. The first button of the jacket was unbuttoned to allow breathing space and air to pass through. Underneath the jacket was a pale-blue, almost white dress with tight sleeves reaching up to her elbows, and a pair of white and blue boots to go with it. Around her waist was a white belt with a pouch similar to Nagisa's, and two stringed belt hanging almost loosely below the black belt, securing a slightly bigger pouch, white, black and yellow in colour. And similar to her sandy-blonde companion again, she wore a cloak with a lighter grey colour, but adorned with a white heart. She quickly rushed to Nagisa's side.

"H-Honoka! I can help myself up!" Nagisa said to her friend who was currently helping her into a sitting position with as much gentleness as possible. Nagisa tried to pry away Honoka's arms gently and to get up, only to be held firm on the ground by the blunette's hands. _"Gosh, when had Honoka gotten so strong?"_

"No, Nagisa. You're injured, and you'll have to be treated right now, or it will hurt badly afterwards. Or worse, the wounds will be infected." Honoka replied sternly as she rummaged through her bag-like pouch for medical supplies.

"Hah, as you would call these 'injuries'. I'm fine! Look, I can even-ow ow ow ow-!" Nagisa swung her arms up and down to prove her point, but because of the strain caused by the chain of attacks she used, her muscles were pulled slightly, causing her arms to hurt every time she moved them.

"And you call that 'fine'? Mou, Nagisa, you shouldn't push yourself like this." Honoka chided, holding up a small bottle of clean water and an ointment. She folded up one of her sleeves and revealed several injuries on her arm. She rinsed one of the gashes with water to clear away dirt and dust, then she applied some ointment onto a cotton which was held up by a pair of cotton pliers, and dabbed it against a gash.

"Ow-!" Nagisa yelped at the contact. She tried to move away her arm, but was held firm by her friend again.

"Please bear with this, Nagisa. It'll just be for awhile, okay?" Honoka told her friend. Nagisa pouted and looked the other way, grumbling incoherently, but she complied to her request, nonetheless. Honoka smiled at the gesture. _'Still like a child as always.'_

"…Hmph, Nagisa, you seem to listen to Honoka more than you listen to me-mepo, even though I've advised you of the same thing-mepo." Mepple then spoke up, unamused.

"Shut up, Mepple. No one asked you." Nagisa retorted back, annoyed once again. Mepple transformed into his fairy form and glared at Nagisa.  
"Say what again-mepo!?"  
Nagisa glared back with as much annoyance at her yellow companion. "I said, no one asked you!"

They glared at each other in a stare-off, sparks flying all around. Honoka chuckled in amusement at their usual banter as she tended to more of Nagisa's injuries. As they continued, a small puff of smoke exploded at Honoka's pouch and a pink blur jumped out, towards Mepple.

"Mepple-mipo~!" The yellow fairy was tackled aside as the pink blur crashed into him.  
"Mipple-mipo!" Mepple exclaimed happily after recovering from his surprise, instantly forgetting about the banter that happened a few moments ago. The couple joined hands/paws(?) and danced in circles happily. Nagisa looked at them, unamused by their 'lovey-dovey' gestures while Honoka smiled as she continued treating her friend's wounds.

After awhile, they heard someone calling the duo from ahead and turned their heads towards the newcomer. "Nagisa-san! Honoka-san!"

The both of them immediately lightened up in smiles as they heard the voice of their friend calling them, but as they saw her walking towards them carrying a small figure and holding the hand of another figure, walking timidly in tow, their expressions turned into one of confusion and surprise.

The girl had huge, shaggy blond hair, tied into twin tails and yellow eyes. She was wearing a pink and yellow themed dress, adorned with pink ribbons, hearts and white frills and feathers. A pink pouch dangled from the yellow ribbon around her waist. She was carrying a little boy with messy, dark brown hair, wearing a blue and white T-shirt, a pair of blue shorts and white socks in her arms, and the boy holding her hand was slightly taller than the little boy, but was still shorter than the girl. He had the same hair colour as the younger boy, but spikier and had blue eyes. He wore a dark blue shirt, a pair of long grey jeans and blue slippers. Both boys tensed and clung to the girl tightly as they approached the other two cures and their fairies.

The girl whispered some comforting words to them, making them relax slightly. She smiled and handed the younger boy into his older brother's arms and approached her friends.

"Luminous!" Nagisa and Honoka greeted their friend and waved, but turned serious again as they glanced at the boys.  
"Who are those children? Where did they come from?" Honoka asked, curious and mildly surprised. It was rare to find survivors that remained on this darkness-plagued region these days, let alone small, defenseless children who seemed completely unharmed, but slightly wearied.

By now, most citizens would have been consumed—or captured—by the darkness and transported to another world when the dark forces rose once again months ago—and this time, winning—but possibly alive. The people who were lucky to be overlooked(by mistake) were gathered by the Pretty Cures and were then transported to other safer worlds. So far, only Earth had been targeted, and Pretty Cures from around the world had formed connections and were scattered around certain regions to restore the light and possibly search for more survivors.

"I don't know. I found them hiding in an alleyway nearby while I was looking around." Shiny Luminous replied. She smiled warmly at the boys who looked at the three warriors shyly, but with a sense of awe as well. But when she heard her sandy-blonde friend suddenly cursed out in pain, she drew her attention back to her seniors.

"Nagisa-san? What happened?" She asked with worry, gesturing at the treated gashes and bruises. Those wounds were unusual on the black Cure, being the more adept fighter that she was.  
"Well, it seems that Nagisa here had encountered more than a few Zakennas, and she overworked herself by defeating all of them instead of retreating as we had planned before. Isn't that right, Nagisa?" Honoka guessed as she placed a finger on her chin, a small, teasing smile on her face, as she recalled an incident weeks ago that was nearly similar to the situation then.

Nagisa stared at her friend in shock for awhile, then pouted. "You know me too well, Honoka. And it wasn't just more than a few; it was dozens of them! And that proves that there was an Origin nearby, and what choice do I have?" She raised her arms in exasperation, but regretted it soon after. "Ouch…"

Honoka and Luminous's expressions then turned into one of panicked in an instant. "An Origin?! Why didn't you-"

A loud rumble interrupted their conversation—_in ridiculous coincidence_, as Nagisa might say—as everyone snapped to attention, while the brothers stumbled to the ground in fear.

"-tell us before!?" Honoka finished her sentence as Mipple and Mepple turned back into Commune forms in their respective partner's hands.

"I-I was about to tell you once Hikari is back!" Nagisa replied in a panicked and slightly apologetic tone. Just then, a hoard of Zakennas came into view, all rushing at the trio from far ahead. Without a moment spared, they joined hands and transformed.

"Dual Aurora Wave!" A vibrant, rainbow coloured light exploded around Nagisa and Honoka as they made they're introductions.

"Emissary of Light, Cure Black!"  
"Emissary of Light, Cure White!"  
"We are Pretty Cure!"  
They posed in their own poses and said their lines.  
"Servant of the Dark Powers!"  
"Return to the Darkness from which you came!"

Their Cure forms had some slight modifications over the months. Their outfits had not been as restrictive as before. Instead, their outfits had adjusted to allow more movement, all the while still giving their wearers the protection they needed. Their abilities had improved and increased, along with their strength, speed, defense, agility and so on. They had also gained access to newer and stronger powers, and to top it all off, they had gotten a lot closer as the months passed by; the harsh environment they walked on now did not allow them to have the same length of solitude as they have had before. They worked together a lot better than before, and were more in sync.

But as the team got stronger over the time, their enemies had gotten stronger as well.

"Black, take those children to safety, Luminous and I will deal with the Zakennas." White informed while she and Luminous went on standby.

"Eh? But I want to help-"  
"Please, Black!" Luminous cut her off pleadingly. There was no time for stubbornness after all.

With that said, the two cures took off towards the Zakennas, leaving behind Black with the fearful brothers. "O-Oi! I can't believe this!" Black exclaimed and whispered out the second part. She then approached the children, quickly carried them in her arms and ran off to a safer location.

"P-Pretty…Cure?" The older boy mumbled, looking up at Black in awe as she ran. Black glanced down at the boy for a moment and grinned.  
"Yup, that's right. Don't worry; we will bring you to safety soon, okay?" She told him.  
"…U-Uhn…" The boy nodded and clung to Black and his brother tightly, relishing in the warmth of their protector as she held them firmly.

Soon, Black had run a good distance away from the battlefield and hid them in a nearly-destroyed car, with parts of it still intact to allow some shelter. She told the children to stay put and just as she was about to run off to help her teammates out, a small hand reached out and pulled at her skirt, and Black stopped moving.

"D-Don't go…." The boy pleaded weakly to the warrior. Black looked at him with a confused expression, then she glanced at their fragile and shivering figures as they looked at her with a vulnerable and pleading look. She smiled in understanding and sat on the empty seat next to the siblings, legs swinging outwards from where the car door was supposed to be.

"Okay, I'll stay." She replied in a warm tone as she patted their heads. They flinched for a moment—causing Black to falter slightly—then slowly eased at the contact.

"Thank y-you…" The older brother mumbled softly, smiling meekly at her.

Black watched silently as the brothers cuddled up to each other, with the older sibling rocking the both of them back and forth gently and soothingly. They had no one else to rely on but each other, and in this apocalyptic environment now, who knew where their parents had gone to. They might have been separated from each other, and possibly been saved by other Pretty Cure teams. Or worse, they might have been…  
Black frowned at the thought and shook her head, a sorrowful expression now plastered on her face.

'_Mom, dad, Ryouta…'_ She thought as she buried her face in her hands, hiding her pain and the stinging tears by her eyes from the fragile children behind her.

* * *

To be continued…?


End file.
